From death penalty
Sentence was like a dose of medicine “Finally we decided not to give the death sentence because she can be rehabilitated.”
SCHAPELLE Corby was a pen stroke from the firing squad.
A special News Corp investigation can reveal the death penalty was on the table for Corby but it was not her blue eyes, Australian accent or the extraordinary media interest in the beauty school dropout that saved her from execution.
In short, it was the malleability of youth and Indonesia’s belief in rehabilitation.
For the first time, the man who prosecuted Corby — Ida Bagus Wiswantanu — has revealed she was given a second chance because of her young age. And this was despite her refusal to admit guilt.
Mr Wiswantanu said punishment was like medicine for the ailing.
But the question was how much medicine was required in Corby’s case?
“I felt that Corby can still rehabilitate herself so the death sentence is not the punishment. If she got the death sentence she cannot rehabilitate. But I felt that Corby has the chance to fix herself,” he said.
He said considerations of humanity also came into the decision-making process.
“For sure it was discussed,” Mr Wiswantanu said of the death penalty option.
“We discussed it. We also considered the level of medicine, or how many years, is needed for her and finally we decided not to give the death sentence because she can be rehabilitated,” he said.
The Bali prosecutors then sent their recommendation to Jakarta.
Mr Wiswantanu said it was the Attorney-General who signed off on the life sentence demand.
He said the fact Corby was Australian or any considerations of the relationship with Indonesia did not enter into the case or the making processes.
Asked if the medicine had worked, given Corby maintains her innocence, Mr Wiswantanu is blunt.
“Like a doctor who gives medicine for the flu, sometimes we get the flu again ... not all medicine will work in all people,” Wiswantanu said.
“For sure it concerns me (that she claims to be innocent) because as a law enforcer we really hope that she will not repeat the crime again.”
He summed up: “For sure she knows the truth.”
Mr Wiswantanu said Corby had a more than fair trial.
Corby’s defence team succeeded in having the High Court reopen the case to hear new evidence after the verdict, something that had never happened.
At the time of her arrest, on October 8, 2004, the 4.2kg of marijuana found in her boogie board bag was a large amount for Bali.
Mr Wiswantanu said the impact on the community needed to be taken into account.
After the case he went on to serve in senior prosecution positions in Jakarta and other provinces before returning to Bali where he is second in charge of Bali prosecutors.
He was thw chief prosecutor who was present at the executions of the three Bali bombers in late 2008. decision-